John & Allison's Adventures Down South: Cross Canada Trip 2019

Hello followers! It's been quite a while since I've added to this blog. A trip across this wonderful country we call Canada is a great reason to start again.

We left our home in Lamoureux on June 25th and went as far as Lloydminster. It was a rather grey and rainy day.

We visited with our friend Rachelle Sparkes and her now 2 yr old daughter Roya. A short but nice visit.
Rachelle bought a little house in Lloyd and with the help of her Dad and brother, completely renovated it. She has done a lovely job decorating the entire house including a fully equipped basement suite which she rents as and Airbnb.

June 26, sunny 24C
We said goodbye the next morning after "camping" in the parking lot of the Catholic church across the street. Had breakfast in town and headed up hwy 17, which straddles the Alberta/Saskatchewan border. We turned onto Hwy 3 and headed into Saskatchewan.

I am convinced the people who live in Saskatchewan perpetuate the "it's all flat and boring" reputation to keep the pretty, rolling countryside, in many areas, all to themselves. :)

We stopped in Spiritwood for the night in the little Lions campground. It was completely adequate for the night and the person who operates it from the convenience store across the street had no problem letting us stay until 3pm the next day so that we could golf.

June 27, sunny 25C
The Spiritwood golf course is a very scenic and tricky course. It reminded me a bit of the Elk Island course and John of the course at Lac La Biche. Narrow fairways and quite hilly. We walked the front and carted the back.

Hit the road after our golf and headed to the meeting point at the Shell Lake corner where we met our friends Murray and Dori. We followed them to their house on Iroquois Lake at Pebble Baye. We set up the trailer in their driveway and spent two fun days visiting, touring the area and enjoying Murray and Dori's excellent hospitality. June 28 & 29 both mainly sunny and 24C.

Off to our next rendezvous with the next friends in Verdin, Manitoba. We traveled south to Saskatoon and hooked up to Hwy 16.
We overnighted in Yorkton, SK at the City of Yorkton campground. Very nice. Took off the next morning and drove to Verdin via Hwy 16 and onto the Trans Canada Hwy.

June 30, mainly sunny 26C
It was a very nice scenic drive to Verdin and we stopped for a picnic at the park in Birtle, MB.

Arrived mid afternoon in Verdin and after setting up camp at the very nice Lions campground we headed over to Ken and Lisa's for dinner. John and Ken had a good time reminiscing about the good old Albchem days. We then headed back to our camp.

NB: All this trip there have been few to no mosquitoes. It was especially uncharacteristic in Verdin. Our friends and others we spoke with were so amazed and happy that the mosquito population was so low. There are so many stories about how bad the mosquitoes are in Manitoba so we were very happy too!

July 1, sunny 26C
We spent Canada Day in Verdin, starting with brunch at the Verdin Golf Club. Then we watched the merry little parade, followed by a very nice round of golf at the Oak Island Golf course. It was so beautiful! Nestled among a lovely oak forest. So many sweet song birds. We also saw a Whitetail deer and a fox. The course was in really nice shape also.

Ken and Lisa invited us for dinner again that evening and we went to see the fireworks to top off the Canada Day celebration. The fireworks were amazing! They must have lasted 30 minutes with many, many varieties. We Ooooed and Aahhhhed a lot.

After saying our farewells we headed back to camp. We had barely gotten to bed when a big thunderstorm rolled through. There was plenty of lightning and it rained for quite a while to cool things off.

July 2, cloudy with sunny breaks and then sunny 25C.
Traveling via Hwy 1 Trans Canada we headed towards Winnipeg and took the bypass which skirts the city quite a ways south. It is pretty flat and less scenic than most of the trip so far. As we headed further east the terrain changed from farmland to forest. I had contacted two campgrounds that were down the road and luckily one had a spot for us for 2 days, near Prawda, MB. We had a less desirable spot, out in the open, rather than in the trees by the river but it turned out to be better because the Manitoba reputation regarding loads of mosquitoes came true at this location. Yikes! We had to use all our best mosquito repelling tricks we know. Even then we were swatting and zapping the little biters at bedtime.

July 3, a bit overcast 23C then showers

Woke up to a sunny day. We decided it would be a good day to do a bit of housekeeping and relaxing and reading. Treated ourselves to dinner at Sophie's Restaurant and Deli down the road to Hadashville . They specialize in Ukrainian foods so that's what we had. Tasty! Brought home the leftovers as the servings were generous. We picked up fuel on the way back so we would be ready to head out next morning.